1 May 2014

Beauty: My April favourites

I was away a lot in March and generally stuck to my usual products, so I didn't do a favourites post as I didn't have many interesting things to include. In April however, I've been making up for lost time and have lots of new favourites to share.

First up are my favourite lip products of the month. I hadn't intended to buy a Tanya Burr lipgloss - although they did look lovely in all of the photos I'd seen online - but when I spotted them in my local Superdrug I gave in and and picked up the shade first date, which is a pretty nude pink. I always gravitate towards lipglosses in this colour - it must be my safe zone shade. Another lip product in a similar colour which I've enjoyed this month is Too Faced's La Cremé colour drenched lipstick in the shade marshmallow bunny. I bought this in New York and I admit, I fell for the name before the product, but it's a lovely creamy and hydrating lipstick in a sheeny and almost pearly pink.

I've also really been back into using Lanolips as a saviour for both my lips and my nose, as I had a mean and nasty cold over Easter. This is the best thing I've found for treating the sore, red, flakey skin which you get from blowing your nose too much when you're unwell.

And one more lip colour for good measure - I love the NYX butter glosses - the formula is buttery just like their name, and the colours are really intense. I already have some paler pink shades so when I was in the US I bought a back up or two and thought I'd also try a new shade - this pinky coral is called peaches and cream. Now that we can order these in the UK I'm bound to add a few more shades to my collection.

As spring is finally with us I've changed up my handcream to something a little lighter as my hands no longer have that dreadful winter chap to them. The Weleda sea buckthorn hand cream gets to work moisturising my hands quickly whilst leaving a really zingy and refreshing scent that I really like.

My most worn nail polish this month has to be the models own hyper gel in naked glow - I love the glossy formula and this is my new favourite nude. And my favourite perfume this month is the ever so girly Vera Wang pink princess which smells kind of like sweets, in a good way.

I've been wearing Urban Decay's naked skin foundation on and off since February and it's become a firm favourite. It doesn't seem to work so well for me when my skin gets drier from the cold weather, but on my more 'normal' skin days this has been giving me an almost flawless finish which I love.

Nivea cellular anti-age has been my night cream of choice. I reviewed the range here and the night cream was my favourite of the bunch. It has a lovely rich texture which feels instantly comforting and calming on the skin - it was especially good when my skin was feeling all dried out from having a cold. I've also been giving my poorly complexion a boost with the Good Things Manuka Honey radiance face mask. It's a lovely mask which puts me in mind of something homemade as it has a paste type texture and for some reason puts me in mind of oats, although it's made with honey, beeswax and white clay. It also dries to the point that you can get a few satisfying cracks before you rinse it off! This left my skin feeling nicely hydrated, calm and even - certainly one I'll keep using.

The beautiful marbled bronzer you can see is from the Kiko life in Rio collection which I'll be featuring soon. This bronzer in the shade 201 sienna melange is my pick of the range. It's a really warm, glowy bronzer which I've been using daily to pep up my makeup routine and to help transition me into spring and summer. It also has a brilliantly large mirror in the lid which is perfect for any necessary close up inspections.

My bathtime has consisted solely of products from the Lush Easter range this April, and sadly this bunny bubble bar and fluffy pink egg are now all that remains from my haul this year.

Lastly, the shampoo and conditioner I've been loving lately are these two from the Umberto Giannini Jet Set Brunette range. It's been ages since I tried a shampoo designed to enhance the colour of your hair, and the formula of these is much better than I expected or remembered from trying other products. The shampoo is comes out as a slightly scary but gorgeously rich deep cocoa brown, and the conditioner is the colour of a chocolate milkshake! They leave my brown hair looking a little bit more interesting than usual with a slight depth to the colour, and they add loads of shine. I like!